Last century, physics invented a tale of quantum waves that spread at light speed then collapsed instantly to give physical events. It made no sense because physical waves can’t spread at the speed of light then collapse and start again at some point. Yet this weird behavior of quantum waves predicted atomic events amazingly, leading to modern technology (Jenner, 2014) like:
- Transistors, that run electronic devices like smartphones, work according to quantum principles.
- Medical devices, like MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) that looks within the body without surgery, work according to quantum principles.
- Global Positioning Systems (GPS), that let us navigate globally, work according to quantum theory.
- Lasers, that scan barcodes at supermarkets or remove tattoos, work according to quantum theory.
- Solar panels, that convert sunlight into electricity, work according to quantum theory.
- LEDs (light-emitting diodes), that run the sensor lights on TVs, work according to quantum theory.
Without quantum theory these technologies wouldn’t exist, but no-one noticed at the time that the weirdness of quantum theory could be explained by computer science, as processing waves spreading on a network can:
- Collapse. Quantum waves collapse and restart at a point. Physical waves can’t do this but the server that generates a processing wave can restart it. Reverse engineering concludes that quantum waves collapse and restart because the server generating them restarts.
- Evolve. Quantum waves evolve one step at a time. Physical waves don’t seem to do this but waves that spread on a network pass from one point to the next in a stepwise fashion. Reverse engineering concludes that quantum waves evolve step-by-step because that is how the network passes them on.
- Superpose. Quantum waves superpose probabilities up to a limit of one. Physical waves can form waves of any height, as surfers know, but quantum waves have a fixed limit. Reverse engineering concludes that this limit is because each network point has a bandwidth beyond which it overloads and reboots.
- Entangle. When quantum waves interact in a physical event, they essentially entangle to become one entity. Physical waves can’t do this, as they pass through each other, but when quantum waves restart together they entangle. Reverse engineering concludes that quantum waves entangle because servers starting at the same point merge their processing.
More details follow, but essentially quantum theory makes sense when viewed in computing terms. Its waves that restart could be processing waves that spread on a network until they overload a point, whose reboot triggers a physical event that entangles them. Figure 2.15 summarizes this model as follows:
- Servers generate quantum waves,
- Those waves spread on the network,
- Until they overload a point, which reboot,
- To restart the waves in a physical event.
In network terms, a photon is a wave of processing that spreads on the network of space until it overloads a point in a physical event that restarts the photon again, so nothing is lost. Quantum waves as processing waves can evolve stepwise when passed on, superpose when they overlap, collide when they overload a point, collapse when they restart, and entangle when their servers merge, so quantum theory could be literally true.
Quantum theory predicts that we observe a photon by interacting with its quantum wave in a physical event, so an observation is an act. It follows that we don’t passively observe a world that constantly exists but actively create observations of it from one moment to next. What is out there are quantum waves that become a physical event when observed. Hence, the physical world is like a painting that only appears when it is painted, one brushstroke at a time, and we aren’t the only painters, as atoms also paint physical events. The surface painted upon, which we call space, can curve, and the clock that counts our brushstrokes, which we call time, can slow down, just as Einstein deduced. Relativity gives each painter their own frame of reference so time and space aren’t as we thought, absolute, but relative to the observer. This suggests that time and space are relative because they are generated along with each physical event.
If our time and space are generated, then before the first physical event, or big bang, they didn’t exist. Stephen Hawking also concluded that space and time began when our universe did, because before that nothing existed (Hertog, 2024). In this view, to begin a universe like ours requires not only entities but also the space and time that they exist within. What exists must do so within something, so time and space had to start when our universe did. To think that the creation of our universe was just about light or matter is to underestimate it, because things need time and space as well. We expected objects to be created when a universe began, but didn’t expect time and space to be created as well. For a real world, this has no explanation but for a virtual world, its time and space are expected to begin when it does. That our space and time are virtual explains not only why they curve and dilate, but also why they began when our universe did, which physical models can’t do.
Table 2.1 compares this model with physical realism for space and time, so the reader can decide which better explains the evidence. The following chapters use the above model to explain the behavior of light (Chapter 3), matter (Chapter 4), relativity and fields (Chapter 5), and make a testable prediction that current theory denies – that pure light can collide (4.5.9). Chapter 5 ends Part I, about the observed world, then Part II (Chapters 6 and 7) explores the observer using the same model.